Patch 4.3 and beyond
- The new 5 man dungeons will help to introduce the Deathwing Raid.
- The current plan with the Deathwing raid is to have it all available immediately upon release.
- The Deathwing raid will be smaller than Ulduar with many phases or encounters with Deathwing.
- Patch 4.4 will bring a world event before the next expansion.
- The next expansion should be released with a "meaningful difference" in the release timeline compared to previous expansions.
Making the raid completely available upon release means we will not have a gated progression like we did with ICC. This will make many people happy and sad. I know people don't like to see the content defeated so quickly, but doing so will not make us be in the instance for what seemed like forever as was the case with ICC.
Saying right out that 4.4 will be the event before the next expansion doesn't directly say that there won't be a bridge raid. It just means there won't be a conclusion raid. So what is the difference? Well Sunwell was a conclusion raid, and Ruby Sanctum was a bridge raid. I foresee a world event maybe not to the extreme as say the plague infestation, but the elemental unrest combined with a raid is something I think is definitely possible.
I see "meaningful difference" as a way of saying it will mean we will see it probably during the end of Summer or early Fall 2012. They want to release the expansions quicker and I think this is the way to do it. I also think we will get more hints of this at Blizzcon when we will actually see how close they may be to the Alpha of Mists of Pandaria.
So those are my thoughts on the random points brought up at Gamescon. Have another idea, be sure to let me know if you think I am full of crap.
Makes sense, and as with most things your forsight seems to be correct
ReplyDeleteWell, because you're horde, you've always got some crap going on. ;) But one thing that struck me in all the coverage about the remarks is that many people feel "meaningful difference" is going to mean a more content driven expansion.
ReplyDeleteIn each expansion, they do some things brilliantly and some things, well, I'll be polite and say not so brilliantly. My take on the expansions: BC-what was brilliant was the vast number of quests. Quest arcs were mostly 5 to 6 steps. There were stories to be told, even small ones. (My cow just finished the one in BC where the dead belf hubby had a girlfriend. That was hysterical.) What sucked was how quickly gear was replaced.
Wrath-what was brilliant was the overarching story, that we were all working toward the demise of the Lich King. Phasing was introduced and although it's tough to help a guildie not in phase with you, it's added the ability to layer a story and have the environment around you change as you do the quest line. What sucked, 5-mans became a joke. We left a toon at the first boss in UP just to see what would happen and they still got all the rep and all the points. You didn't need to know your toon at all. You could just march through the instances. Bad playing habits were reinforced by content that didn't require thought.
Cata-epic story line. Changing the whole world. The return of the thinking man's dungeon. You can't steamroll them until you learn them. What sucks is how quickly we hit 85 and then...what do I do? I'm sick of everything being a grind. That hasn't changed with the addition of the Molten Front offensive.
I hope they make the leveling process slower in the next expansion. I hope there is a vast story to tell. Send me to Outlands. Send me to Northrend. There is a whole world here that could be utilized. Don't give me 45,000,000 XP for finding little Dora's doll. Keep me going by sending me some place else to help, to poke around, to see.
That's my $2.00 worth.
--Gimmlette